Monday Music Matinee: Burning Man

Good morning Fellow Travelers, and happy Labor Day! Here in California, Labor Day is more than a rememberence of railroad workers slain by the US Military (know your history, kids!), it's also the day when all the Burners come home from Black Rock City. Thousands of dust-coated campers, brains fried crispy by the sun (and possibly various hallucinogenic substances), pile into their RVs and make the arduous trek from the that temporary metropolis in the alkali deserts of central Nevada, back home to the glittering sea-side cities here in the Golden State and elsewhere. I say "back home" though many regard that strange and ever evolving city their true home and speak dismissively or disinterestedly about that which the call the "default world."

And though I don't share that sensation of feeling at home there, it's not hard for me to see the attraction. Black Rock City is a world unto itself. A vibrant explosion of color and sound and experience resting in the bowl of a stark dead lake. A city built of dreams and populated almost entirely by people who believe in The Possible. It's an astonishing place, unlike any other place in the world, and it's siren call has pulled me back seven times in the last ten years. The years I don't manage to make the pilgrimage I miss it terribly, and I have developed a number of coping mechanisms for dealing with this light melancholy, not the least of which involves a whole bunch of music.

I'm an admitted late comer when it comes to acknowledging Grimes' awesomeness, her music runs a little synthier than my usual tastes and her lyrics border on repetitive. But something about this video, with it's Mad-Max-meets-Kill-Bill-on-the-streets-of-Beverly-Hills aesthetic, made her click for me (it's pretty much what I'm aiming for all the time on the playa) Now i'm listening to visions and watching my newsfeed for stories of safe returns, and imaging what life would be like if Burning Man where all the time.